COMMUNITY FORUM

Travertine Tile Not Set Level

I have a travertine tile floor that was just recently set by a friend. While the floor is not terribly unlevel, it is enough that it bothers me, The tiles are not flush at the edges, is there anyway short of tearing the floor up to level the tile?

I mentioned to my friend and I am told that the floor slab was unlevel to start with. Not wishing to loose a frienship, I have not pushed the issue any further.

Your friend may be right, if the tiles were larger than 12", a flat floor is required. It has to come that way or be made flatter by using self leveling cements. Sometimes a larger notch trowel will fill in minor floor deviations, but nothing can compensate if the floor is really bad, other than a full mud job.

Nothing that you can do, a floor refinisher can sand it down but it takes experience and the right equipment.

You can remove the unlevel tiles and spread thicker or thinner mortar depending on the problem. Your friend should have leveled the floor before he starting sticking tiles. This is why you should ALWAYS go with a professional, insured installer. It may cost a little more, but as you have found out, you get what you pay for. I own a flooring store in Fort Collins, CO, if my customer has any problem like that, the installer is quickly sent back to fix the problem. With NO cost to the client.

while a flat subfloor/substrate certainly facillitates a quciker and easier instalaltion, it isnt a prerequisite to a good job !

Tile Craftsmen have been installing slab stone and tile for 100 or more years on wavy uneven substrates/subfloors WITH flush and flat as a sheet of glass finishes from tile to tile.

Regardless of a floors waviness or height intolerance, all an installer has to do is have a 2-foot masons level along, laying it on the tile as he is installing it. If the tile edges do not line up, you pull the tile and add or remove thinset until they ARE flush with all the surrounding tiles.

That is old school ceramic and stone installation 101.

You MIGHT be able to rectify some of it just by removing the worse ones and reinstalling.

I have my doubts though, becasue if you have alot of highs and lows, you have a rough time getting them all on the same level without redoing it all, but hey you might get lucky.

i feel your pain.

one of my best friends is a hobbiest basement refinisher. After tearing out all his work, it look good now :/ It sucked having to sneak all the materials in so he couldnt see me redo it.